A.Word.A.Day

Torch-bearing Hymen, in the center, holds Psyche’s hand as Cupid places a ring on her finger
Detail from The Marriage of Cupid and Psyche

Art: Pompeo Batoni, 1756

A.Word.A.Day

with Anu Garg

hymeneal

PRONUNCIATION:

(hy-muh-NEE-uhl)

MEANING:

adjective: Relating to a wedding or marriage.noun: A wedding song or poem.

ETYMOLOGY:

After Hymen, the god of marriage in Greek mythology. Earliest documented use: 1602.

USAGE:

“There must be no love interest in the story. ... The business in hand
is to bring a criminal to the bar of justice, not to bring a lovelorn
couple to the hymeneal altar.”
S.S. Van Dine; Twenty Rules for Writing Detective Stories; American
Magazine; Sep 1928.

“In those uncivilised days, the Marriage Act had not been passed, and
there was no convenient hymeneal registrar in England to change a vagabond
runaway couple into a respectable man and wife at a moment’s notice.”
Wilkie Collins; A Rogue’s Life; Richard Bentley; 1879.